A black man is suing Toronto police, alleging officers threw him to the ground, pressed one knee to his neck and repeatedly hit him with a taser while he was pinned down and detained — wrongly.
His family said Monday the case highlights the disproportionate use of force against black people in Toronto and continued racial profiling by police officers in the metropolis.
In his statement of claim, filed in Ontario Superior Court, 27-year-old Hasani O’Gilvie alleges that he was assaulted by three Toronto police officers outside a North York grocery store when he was going to his classes at the University of Toronto in August 2021.
The complaint alleges Mr O’Gilvie was only released after officers searched his bag and found identification to prove what he had been claiming since the start of his arrest.
Mr. O’Gilvie and his family are seeking more than $1 million in damages. The complaint says the man continues to suffer severe emotional and psychological trauma as a result of the alleged assault, which left him with facial scars and injuries to his upper body.
The Toronto Police Service says it will not comment as the matter is before the courts. The Toronto Police Association says officers won’t comment because the case is before an ethics committee.
Plaintiff’s lawyer, David Shellnutt, believes this is ‘a case where someone is assaulted for walking while black […] and that he looked like someone the police claimed to be looking for”.
Mistake on the person
According to the complaint against the three officers, which was actually filed last June, and which has yet to be tested in court, Mr O’Gilvie disclosed his identity to a police officer who had arrested him for him ask questions after following him down an alley near the grocery store. According to the complaint, the police officer did not believe him and drew a stun gun shortly before the arrival of two other colleagues.
Mr. O’Gilvie raised his hands and complied with the summons, but the officers allegedly tackled him to the ground, according to the complaint. One of the officers then allegedly applied a knee to his neck and repeatedly hit him with a stun gun, while Mr. O’Gilvie “was subdued, on the ground, offering no resistance, and while restraints were applied,” according to the complaint.
“Regardless of the mistaken identity of the person [les policiers] were looking for, this case ended in a young student from the University of Toronto with a knee on his neck, the same maneuver that had killed George Floyd just a year earlier, said Monday Me Shellnutt. And the most astonishing thing is that he was shot with a taser several times, by the same police officer — this is unacceptable. »
Mr O’Gilvie, who has since returned to university only last week, was in no condition to speak at Monday’s press conference, his family said.
His lawyer explained on Monday that the family had decided to go ahead with the civil action for damages after the little success obtained in their representations to the authorities concerned.